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EconBest

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Hello everyone, sorry to bother but I have two very important questions

 

1) Do Universities care about the GRE's Verb & Analytical? If I have to study for Verb e Analytical as much as I will have to study for the GRE I have to study for 9 months or so which seems crazy to me

2) which are the best books to study on? Cause on the web everyone has his own favorite and well...that is not helpful! I would say Manhattan 8 books for the Theory and the massive 6 Lb Practice Tests but I don't know...let me know

 

Thanks in advance to all the ones who will take the time to answer! Truly appreciate it.

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1) Depends on your nationality. If not a native speaker, verb and analytical do not matter much. I would say look at some of the answer strategies in GRE prep book (like writing essays lenghty; I scored a 5.0 for a long, unsophisticated essay as a non-native). I would say practice a day for each, not more.

2) Google is your friend. Many good reviews of books there. I used Kaplan, which was ok. Best IMO is the book from ETS itself for its practice questions.

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A week is the maximum I'd suggest spending on prepping for the entire test, most of it on analytical. Verbal is basically irrelevant, and for quant, most people consider doing a MS/PhD in econ should be familiar enough with basic algebra such that additional preparation will have very low marginal returns. The GRE just isn't an important enough part of the application to warrant months of your time for a 0-10% shift in percentiles. Analytical is the only one where understanding the style of the test makes a huge difference on your score, and the jump in percentiles between each score bracket is also significant enough.

 

Most people I knew who had a good idea of what they were doing spent 0-1 days prepping for the test and didn't regret it.

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A week is the maximum I'd suggest spending on prepping for the entire test, most of it on analytical. Verbal is basically irrelevant, and for quant, most people consider doing a MS/PhD in econ should be familiar enough with basic algebra such that additional preparation will have very low marginal returns. The GRE just isn't an important enough part of the application to warrant months of your time for a 0-10% shift in percentiles. Analytical is the only one where understanding the style of the test makes a huge difference on your score, and the jump in percentiles between each score bracket is also significant enough.

 

Most people I knew who had a good idea of what they were doing spent 0-1 days prepping for the test and didn't regret it.

 

If you are a proficient english speaker (native or otherwise), and are half-descent at writing, you can improve your analytical to at a 4.5 or 5 within 4-12 hours (1-2 days). You really just need to understand what they are asking for, and what they look for. Read a few examples, and then practice on a couple prompts. The only reason you should do poorly on the AW section after performing the above is if you "freeze up" on test day. In general, most of the prompts shouldn't "stump you," you just need to remember the strategy and work towards the goal. I am not normally a proponent of brain storming, but my outcomes improved significantly by spending 3-5 minutes brainstorming immediately following the reading of the prompt (while practicing and on test day).

 

Verbal is fairly difficult to improve, and as Chateau mentioned generally not important.

 

The difficulty of the quant will depend on how recently you had trignometry/geometry courses. For me, most of the material had not been viewed since I was in high school (nearly 10 years). -For me, it was not only 10 years ago, but it totaled only a single course. I'd have been better off if they had tested on Calc material. I had to memorize the formulas, and practice problems (Longer than Chateau suggested). However, half of the difficulty for me was the 'relearning/memorizing', 1/4 was reviewing how the problems were designed and reviewing the quickest way to solve each type of question, and 1/4 was actually practicing. It's not hard math, but it may be something that you're having to really reach back into memory for. Practicing, especially with timed tests, definitely helped me complete the problems in the allotted time on test day (I am normally a slow test taker).

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Thanks to all for the answers!

 

Glad to see that everyone seems to agree that AW & Verbal Writing are not considered to be extremely important. I wondered: considering I am no native English speaker, may it be the case that considering I'll give them a IELTS in the 8.5 range or so, the verbal section may be considered even lower because my English knowledge is being tested in a "proper" english exam?

 

That being said, even if Verbal is not really important, aiming at a Top 10-20 PhD, what should be a grade in the Verbal that they may consider too bad to actually influence the application?

 

Thanks!

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I did not pass Verbal & Writing (NS for them). I was rejected by all top-10, admitted by all top-30, and got mixed results in top-20 (admits, wl's, rejects). Some schools told me they won't consider my application (2 or 3 schools). I think verbal and writing don't matter at all, but you should write something there. Plenty of stories of people getting into top schools with 3.0 writing and 145 verbal.
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